The present invention relates to a disposable diaper and more particularly, a disposable diaper including front and rear waist regions adapted to be separably joined together along their transversely opposite side edges when the diaper is put on a wearer""s body.
Such a type disposable diaper is relatively flat before its actual use and includes a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-absorbent core disposed between these two sheets. The diaper is usually provided along its waist-opening and its leg-openings with elastic members secured under appropriate tension to a component of the diaper so that the diaper may fit to a wearer""s body under contraction of these elastic members.
However, it has been difficult to put such a flat diaper on the wearer""s body in conformity with a convex trunk of the wearer (bulge of the wearer""s belly) without leaving gaps between the diaper and the wearer""s skin. Such gaps will cause body fluids to leak along these gaps. If the number of gaps is too many, the diaper will become too baggy to follow the movement of the wearer""s body and create a feeling of discomfort against the wearer.
In view of the above problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disposable diaper improving fitting of the front waist region to the wearer""s skin.
According to the present invention, there is provided a disposable diaper having a front waist region, a rear waist region and a crotch region extending therebetween, the diaper including a first section forming a part of the front waist region inclusive of a front end thereof and a second section forming the remaining part of the diaper and joined to the first section over the entire width of the diaper along a joint zone extending over the entire width of the diaper so that the joined zone describes a concave line toward a rear end of the rear waist region when the first section is folded back onto the second section with respective outer surfaces of the first and second sections facing each other.
The present invention can further include embodiments: the front and rear region being adapted to be separately joined together along their transversely opposite side edges when the diaper is put on a wearer""s body; the first section being formed by a liquid-impervious sheet and the second section is formed by a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and a liquid-absorbent core disposed therebetween so that an outer surface of the liquid-impervious backsheet forming the first section is joined to an outer surface of the backsheet forming the second section along the joined zone; the first section being formed by a nonwoven fabric; the first section being formed by a sheet elastically stretchable and contractable transversely of the diaper; the joined zone being water-tight; and the first section being formed separately from the second section and joined to the second section by means of any of adhesion, heat-sealing and stitching.
With the disposable diaper according to the present invention, the front waist region is adapted to swell forward of the diaper in proximity of the joined zone longitudinally dividing the front waist region in two. Such a unique arrangement advantageously enables the front waist region to fit to the wearer""s belly so that not only undesirable leakage of body fluids can be reliably prevented but also a feeling to wear the diaper can be improved.